As the U.S. Navy proceeds toward more complex ship systems and reduced manning level they have made Survivability and the Ability to “Fight Hurt” the cornerstone of the 21st century combatant. All ships will have automated damage control systems that will provide rapid response to battle damage through the use of internal sensors connected thru networks to computers which will monitor and compare temperature levels, water levels, smoke, etc. Similarly, designed survivability provides a redundancy of systems, power, armor, and optimum internal arrangement all with the intent of minimizing the effects of battle damage.
A review of available literature relating to ship battle damage, such as published battle damage reports for U.S. Navy ships from WW II and British Royal Navy ships in the 1982 Falklands War between UK and Argentina, and reports of the damage sustained by U.S. Navy ships in the Middle East, reveals that the majority of ships damaged in combat operations were still afloat for at least 24 hours after the engagement ended. For cases in which the ship was not on fire, or had not sustained a magazine explosion, it should have had a good chance of survival. Uncontrollable flooding of the ship caused by the intake of water through hull and compartment breaches is what finally resulted in their sinking. When a ship hull is damaged by a shell, mine or missile, the compartment hit will be ripped apart by the explosion and will be open to the sea. There is very little that can be done, in the short term, to counteract that level of damage.
Secondary damage to the ships hull caused by the explosion's overpressure wave will distort the deck frames and bulkheads of those compartments located adjacent to the explosion impact. These distortions will cause the metal in the deck frames and bulkheads to tear and split. These compartments will also suffer punctures in the metal from shrapnel that will allow water to slowly flood the compartment. Each square foot of sea water that enters the ship thru these openings to the sea subtracts from the positive buoyancy of the ship, and eventuality the weight of this water will exceed the displacement of the ship and it will sink.
Traditionally, sailors fighting to control such damage in these adjacent compartments will use wood and other soft materials to manually plug the many holes in the compartment deck frames and bulkheads. The Damage Controlmen (DC) will use portable pumps to remove the water from the compartments. Each damage control team is usually at least 4 sailors. Their work to control flooding usually progresses slowly, and is dependent upon the available manpower and the ability of the sailors to reach all parts of the damaged compartments.
Additionally, when considered in the context of the modern Navy's reduced manning philosophy, any given ship can ill-afford to take sailors away from their critical combat duties to perform damage control duties.
Thus, there is a need for a system that can counter flooding of ship compartments caused by explosions. There is also a need for an automated system to prevent (or reverse) flooding of a ship caused by secondary damage to one or more of the ship's compartments. Such a system should be automatically activated in response to a flooding condition in one or more compartments, and advantageously may be controllable from the ship's damage control station to allow the damage control officer to monitor and adjust, if necessary, the operation of the system. Additionally, the system should operate in a manner that is safe, so that sailors located in the space at the time the damage occurs will have time to evacuate or be evacuated (in the case of inured personnel).